Paulo Coelho, as everyone knows is a writer par excellence. His novels have spiritual and religious meanings. In this book, he describes the story of a 24-year old librarian from Ljubljana in Slovenia. The girl is leading a normal life, but one fine day, she decides to end it all by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. However, much to her surprise, she finds herself surviving the day.

Thereafter she is committed to a mental asylum for recovery.This book is about her experiences in the asylum. The author compares her experiences to those of his own self when, as a child, he was himself sent to a special center for "correction" of his "abnormal choice of writing" as a profession.

everyone who likes such books, but especially for those who have had similar experiences. Brazilians should read this book as it is claimed that the government of Brazil took steps to prevent involuntary commitment of individuals to an asylum or similar institution without proper permissions.

the way Coelho merges the fiction with facts of his own life.

read other books by this superb author.

It sensitised me to the plight of those who are labelled insane and thrown involuntarily into isolation or into an asylum.

Paulo Coelho, author of the famous book "The Alchemist".